..续本文上一页 and carry then as a burden. This is why there”s suffering and stress. We manufacture it ourselves. These things don”t manufacture it for us. ”There is nothing that comes and gives us suffering”: This is how the mind came to understand things. We are the ones who misconstrue things. We are the ones who suffer because we misconstrue things. This produces suffering to burn and trouble the heart. I could clearly see that nothing dies.

　　The mind doesn”t die. It becomes more pronounced. When we fully investigate the four elements — earth, water, wind, and fire — down to their original properties, the mind becomes even more pronounced and clear. So where is there any death

　　 What dies

　　 None of these conditions die. The four elements — earth, water, wind, and fire: They don”t die. And as for the mind, how can it die

　　 It becomes more aware. More pronounced. More conspicuous. This doesn”t die, so why does it fear death

　　 We”ve been fooled all along, fooled for aeons and aeons, for actually nothing dies.

　　Now, the word ”fooled” doesn”t mean that anyone intended to fool us. We”ve been fooled simply because of our own delusion — fooled into fearing death. Now we see: This is how the world fears death — from not having explored down to its truth, from not knowing what dies. Because look: Nothing dies. Each thing simply has its separate reality. I saw this clearly. The mind proclaimed itself by its very nature. I saw its marvelousness clearly, every time.

　　Even when the pain was as hot as fire in the body and seemed ready to reach the clouds, it would vanish clear away, with nothing left, due to the power of mindfulness and discernment; even the body would vanish from my sense of consciousness and wouldn”t appear at all. When everything disbanded completely as the result of my investigation, all that remained was simple awareness, as if floating in mid-space (although I didn”t make the comparison at the moment). It was completely empty, but the awareness knew clearly. There was only one thing. There was only one strange thing in the world: the heart.

　　Earth, water, wind, and fire made no contact with the heart. The heart thus had no sense of earth, water, wind, fire or any part of the body. All that remained was a solitary awareness, an awareness not involved with anything at all — an amazing awareness, coming from having investigated things with circumspection and then having withdrawn from them. Clear. Outstanding. Astounding.

　　Once the mind can be settled down like this — for no matter how many days or nights it may last — it has no sense of pain, that the body will fall apart, that it hurts here or aches there: no sense of any of this at all. And what would give it any sense of this

　　 Time and place don”t exist in that mental state. This called to mind how the Buddhas, Pacceka Buddhas, and arahant disciples could enter the cessation of feeling and perception for seven days at a time. They could enter for as many days as they liked. If their minds settled down like this to the extent of not being involved with anything at all, leaving just plain awareness without any involvement with time or place, then they could sit for aeons if they liked. Even if the body couldn”t endure, if it were to break apart, it would simply do so, without having any impact on this nature at all.

　　This was when my mind accepted — really believed in — the ability of those extraordinary people who enter the cessation of feeling and perception for so-and-so many days. If their minds reached this level without withdrawing back out to anything outside, then for days or months they wouldn”t have any perception of anything at all. Where would there be pain and pleasure in their bodies

　　 There wouldn”t be any at all. They wouldn”t have any sense of the body. They wouldn”t have…

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